Welcome to Close Call Sports. CCS objectively tracks and analyzes close and controversial calls in sport, with great regard for the rules and spirit of the game. Developed from The Left Field Corner: MLB Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (UEFL), whose purpose is to objectively track and analyze umpire ejections, video instant replay reviews and their corresponding calls, with great regard for the rules and spirit of the game.

Friday, November 9, 2012

The Imperial Umpire: Welcome William Shatner

William Shatner has officially taken the field as an MLB umpire at Boston's Fenway Park, if only for a week. Captain James T. Kirk flew to the 100-year-old ballpark to portray an umpire (specifically, a mid-2000s umpire with outer catcher's gear) as part of the music video "At Fenway," a track, CD and DVD licensed by Major League Baseball and added to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown that is scheduled to be released in stores on Opening Day, 2013.

William Shatner, Umpire

Shatner is hardly the first celebrity to star as an umpire—and not even the first from the Star Trek universe. In Deep Space 9's "Take Me Out to the Holosuite," Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois) served as umpire during a Niners-Logicians contest, ejecting Niners batter Solok and manager Benjamin Sisko for arguing a correctly called third strike. In ejecting Sisko from the contest, Odo referenced OBR Rule 4.06(a)(4), stating, "No player shall at any time make contact with the umpire in any manner. The prescribed penalty for the violation is immediate ejection from the game. Rule number 4.06, subsection a, paragraph 4, look it up, but do it in the stands... You're gone!"

The real Rule 4.06(a)(4) states,"No manager, player...shall at any time...make intentional contact with the umpire in any manner." PENALTY: Removal from the game and playing field.